TCHAD BLAKE RECORDING PETER GABRIEL'S UPCOMING RELEASE WITH NEUMANN'S KU 100 BINAURAL HEAD

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tchad Blake gets close to the Neumann KU 100 Binaural Head while recording Peter Gabriel's upcoming release.

OLD LYME CONNECTICUT: Set in the age of prolific multi-effects processors and software packages, renowned musician/engineer/producer Tchad Blake has some very different ideas when it comes to effecting and spatializing his tracks. He's currently employing one of his Neumann KU 100 binaural heads to rerecord tracks on Peter Gabriel's forthcoming album, a technique that has proven itself time and time again.

When not working with his own band, The Latin Playboys, Blake records and produces such upstarts as Sheryl Crow, Tom Waits, Los Lobos, Suzanne Vega, and Paul McCartney.

By using a dummy head with microphones placed inside realistic ears, the Neumann KU 100 captures all of the directional information that our own ears naturally capture. Dubbed "binaural", such recordings convey realistic spatial imaging in three dimensions when played back on headphones. "Binaural recordings are completely unique," Blake offered. "They're completely realistic and require no special processing or extra equipment. I built my own head twenty years ago to modest effect and upgraded to the Neumann ten years ago. Since then I've acquired a second, my wife has purchased one, and we've talked Real World Studios into buying one. That's four heads within a two-mile radius, probably the highest concentration of Neumann heads outside of the factory!"

When he records, Blake usually uses the KU 100 as his main overhead microphone, and it always serves as his field microphone. However, for mixing and remixing purposes, he sets up the KU 100 in a room with unique amplifiers and speaker systems and the "processes" a signal with their electrical and acoustical properties. He uses everything from Radio Shack amplifiers to guitar amplifiers in garbage cans. For a track on Peter Gabriel's project, he sent all of their orchestra strings out through an Indian PA speaker, which was nothing more than a fifty-watt horn designed for outdoor use. With the speaker in a very lively room, Blake was able to morph an otherwise traditional string sound into a "very weird sort of Eastern string sound". The KU 100 captures the space of the room and the timbre of a given speaker with chilling realism.

"I never process the binaural signal for 'loudspeaker compatibility'," noted Blake. "I hate it when people do that because it actually makes it sound worse on loudspeakers, and the binaural effect with headphones is ruined. The binaural signal sounds great on loudspeakers without any tweaking. It doesn't sound truly binaural, but it doesn't sound like plain old stereo, either. There's something very special about it - it has it's own kind of sound. It has depth."

At Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, Blake compliments the KU 100 with Neve and API preamplifiers that feed into either Oxford or Solid State Logic consoles. Other auxiliary equipment includes sunglasses, wigs, lipstick, fake nose-mustache combos, etc. (you know - to dress up the KU 100). Their current project will wrap up at the end of December. At press time, no album title had been settled on.

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